Prior to conglomeration there was a time that radio, television and print were local community outlets. At one time the big three were locally owned, and concentrated on local community. Now most decisions that are made for communities regarding their major media are made from thousands of miles away. What music to play, what programming to air, and all the cuts made at the print level most stories come off the wire than actually written by reporters.
Having worked in radio for so many years and sold against TV and radio it's always easy for me to talk about the big three and it's sad to see their demise, although most of it is self inflected. Radio and TV worry too much about ratings than audience, print for having too big of an ego and not imbracing the internet back in the mid 90's. For me selling media was always about the "who" not the "how many," it's the who that drove me to social media, as well as a lot of my clients.
With social media it is "us" who create the programming, the people! It's the individuals, groups, businesses and brands that we know and trust that we allow into our own special programming. We create our Facebook community to entertain and inform us. We choose whose tweets to follow to keep us updated on technology, news, inspiration and events. With social media you have no one to blame for the poor programming or not being entertained as it's created by you. Yes every time Facebook makes a change people bitch about the look, the format or it seems that something is located somewhere else, but it doesn't change what is being said or how it is said.
Every year I find less and less shows on TV that are Tivo-worthy. I stopped my subscription to the newspaper because they failed to give me the news I was looking for in a timely manner. Radio, what once was the rebel of the big three is now just a corporate suit. It's no wonder that social media has exploded and will continue to grow. People will always gather were they're entertained.